IGD

Institute of Geography and Sustainability of the University of Lausanne
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Powers and attractiveness of the Aix-Marseille Provence metropolis in multinational firms' networks

Research fields Urban matters
Analysis of urban systems
City and economy
Keywords Clustering
Urban diagnostic
Forecasting
Funding Aix-Marseille Provence metropolis
Duration Mai 2014 - December 2015
Website
Researchers Rozenblat Céline (---)

The coherence of a metropolis is an issue for the adjustment of attractiveness policies to reinforce the synergies of its clusters and to renew its economy in European and global competition. The CGET and the interministerial mission for the Aix / Marseille / Provence metropolitan area have entrusted a study to the University of Lausanne, led by a group of local professionals from INSEE, local urban planning agencies, CCIMP and Provence- Promotion. 80th in the world for the metropolis Aix-Marseille Provence The metropolis Aix / Marseille / Provence is located at the 80th place world, far behind Milan (7th) or Barcelona (35th). It is the fourth French city behind Paris (2nd place worldwide), Lille (45th) and Lyon (59th). Non-capital port cities are comparable by the weight of their influence and attractiveness to the metropolis Aix / Marseille / Provence (Fig.1). Among these cities are San Diego or Vancouver, close to the metropolis for their aeronautics industry, Nagoya or Liverpool for their high technologies, Antwerp with a strong petrochemical complex. The Aix / Marseille / Provence metropolis is distinguished from other cities by the balance between the power of its headquarters (radiation) and the number of its subsidiaries (attractiveness). This balance typically characterizes larger cities like London, Paris, New York or Tokyo. Aix-Marseille Provence's weak reaches and attractiveness From the point of view of the geographical scope of the links, the Aix-Marseille Provence metropole suffers from a lack of European and international openness for the attractiveness of subsidiaries compared to other cities of the world. However, metropolitan France is second in France (behind Paris) for the number of subsidiaries controlled abroad, exceeding Lyon. Subsidiaries held outside Europe are mainly in North Africa and Asia and half owned by CMA-CGM. Thus the headquarters of the metropolis are powerful for the port and logistics function, but much less so for other functions related to high technologies or advanced services. 24% of metropolitan employment in multinational firms In total, the multinational enterprises in the sample account for almost 24% of total employment, varying according to the economic pillars: - Domestic support functions (30% of employment in the sectors): services to the population and activities with low technological intensity such as trade, construction, textiles, agri-foods and metallurgy; - Public support (4.5% of jobs): public administration, service and support activities, health and medico-social housing. It is the most important pillar in terms of total employment in the metropolis (40% of total employment), but it is the least represented by multinational companies; - Port and logistics (40% of jobs): transport and warehousing; - Globalized production (50% of jobs): high-tech activities including the pharmaceutical industry, industrial manufacturing of computer products, electronics, optics, equipment, transport equipment and scientific research and development; - Promotion and urban change (32% of jobs): knowledge-intensive services such as IT, telecommunications, finance and insurance, real estate, legal or engineering; - Processing of resources (75% of jobs): mining, chemicals, refining, wood / paper / printing and energy. Employment of multinational firms is more concentrated in space than employment in general The jobs of multinational firms are concentrated in specialized municipalities (Fig.2): Marignane has almost 64% of its employment in establishments of multinational companies, Rousset 58% and Fos-sur -Mer, almost 50%. Alongside these centers, Marseilles concentrates the largest number of employees of multinational companies, but they account for only 21% of its total employment and account for 25% of it in Aix-en-Provence. Strengthen synergies between specialized clusters through multinational enterprises The territory of the metropolis Aix-Marseille Provence is very marked by its multi-polarized character and the municipalities constituting the industrial poles welcome the multinational companies in a privileged way. Multinational firms, on the other hand, are less specialized in them, contributing more to linking complementary activities in the same global production networks. As a result, they reinforce the spatial complementarity between dispersed activities, specialized centers and polarized activities in the two large agglomerations of the AMP metropolis. It is therefore by fostering an attractiveness targeted at intermediate activities between clusters that can be strengthened